


John's Coma

by Dr_Psyche



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Abuse, Gen, Implied Relationships, trippy shit
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-09
Updated: 2015-01-02
Packaged: 2018-01-18 18:24:48
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 9
Words: 10,561
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1438168
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dr_Psyche/pseuds/Dr_Psyche
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Inspired by the game Coma.</p><p>John wakes up, to find his life has changed, he lives in a large dull house in the middle of an expansive countryside. Join him in his quest to save his sister amidst the unsettling muteness of his new dreamlike life. An escape from reality wherein other monsters may lie.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. This World Is Grey

**Author's Note:**

> I was inspired by the game [ Coma](http://www.comagame.net/coma-game.html), an immersive and really interesting game that explores the subconsciousness.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yesterday it rained  
> Watched everything wash away  
> It took some time to dry  
> Before I could feel okay 
> 
> -From The Ground Up  
> Laura Shigihara

john?

John Egbert wakes up slowly, the room swirls before him in shades of grey. He sits up in his bed, shaking his head to clear it. He gets up from his bed, shoving the sheets aside and heading to the bathroom, splashing water on his face.

The cold sends shocks throughout him, he finds his glasses by the tap and puts them on, snapping the world into focus. The drowsiness is gone, kicked to the curb like a can that some depressed down on his luck dude, possibly with marital problems, found and decided to kick across the road in idle thoughts, probably not even noticing it. 

John ignored the developed metaphor and went back to his room to get dressed. He looked at the dwelling. It was grey, all around. His sheets were gray; his walls were bare, the grey seemed to seep into the air. For a moment his mind flashed pictures across them, movies, and drawings. The vision was gone and he was left there. He looked out his window at the overcast weather. Grey clouds moved across the sky, curling and uncurling.

He turns back to his room; the only thing remaining is his piano.

He sits down at the bench, and begins to play. The melody rang through the air, it was beautiful, and it was useless.

John stopped playing, knowing that it was just an exercise in futility. He gets up and exits his room, walking along the hallways. His mind projects tables and statues of Harlequins in the hallway, but only for an instant, and then they’re gone. For a brief moment he sees the words: “The world is a lie,” on the wall, and then that too is gone.

He enters another hallway, floor to ceiling windows expose the forest outside, the grey light seeping in, throwing his shadow into a tall specter, tracing him, stalking him.

He walks up a flight of stairs, as grey as the rest of the house, and exits. He squints his eyes at the pale glare emanating from the sun, filtered by the grey clouds. The world is bleak, grey shadows are cast over everything, his two story house is in the middle of a field, the old mill and a few hills lie to one side, and a dirt road with his dad’s car lies behind him. A river ran through the countryside, passing by the edge of the mill, where a waterwheel spun with the current. There is no visible civilization, the closest city is miles away.

John looks back at his house, it’s a depressing grey three story building on a hill, allowing the second floor door to open up onto a grassy field, the one he’s on now.

He walks across his patio, the dried paint peeling planks groan under his light steps. He puts a hand up to block the glare as he walks to a tree with a cage hanging from it.

The Cage contains a Bird, a bright exotic splash of color against a dismal landscape.

He smiles at the Bird, “now how did you get in there?”

“tweet tweet motherfucker,” the Bird says, his face impassive, “sup bro, I was just chillin’ all on my own, minding my own damn business when your bitch-ass dad all up and stuffed me into this cage.”

“oh, that’s horrible!”

“It’s probably because I was with your sis,” the Bird said.

“again? dammit man!”

“hey, your sister’s a cutie, but now your father’s locked her in a cage underground. he told me he wants her to starve!”

“oh my god! we have to save her!”

“hells yeah bro, get me outta this cage and were off!”

John did so, releasing his fine-feathered friend from his evil cage. The orange Bird hovered by his head, and he took off, exiting the patio and onto a boardwalk. He walked along it, knowing full well it would end in a gazebo at the top of the hill. The boardwalk was slick, wet from last night’s rain. Judging by the sky, perhaps more rain would come. Each step he took, he heard the wood beneath him creak and groan.

His foot splashed where water had coagulated, making his sock a little damp. John hovered his hand over the bannister on one end of the boardwalk, wanting to grab hold should he slip, but not wanting to touch it as it was as wet as the rest of the structure. The bannister broke, so to speak, every 8 feet, to have an entrance at either end, passing by these, John new if he slipped he would have nothing to hang onto, and careen forward. Any sense of safety, however perceived, was abandoned in these moments.

The Gazebo came into sight, his father sat in it, the seats not as wet as the boardwalk because of the gazebo’s roof. 

A small trail of smoke emanated from his pipe.

His Bird circled John’s head, while his father turned to look at him.

Dad stood up, waved John over, and smoothed out his grey suit. He straightened his black tie, and looked down his strong nose at his son.

He removed the pipe from his mouth and said, “Hey champ!”

“hi dad,” John said waving.

"Son, you know I’m very proud of you right?”

John could only nod.

“Good, good,” Dad said, nodding, then his other hand darted out almost like a blur and caught the Bird, “I have so much pride and faith in you, but when you go against me like this, my pride is replaced by disappointment. You don’t want me to be disappointed do you John?”

John shrank away from his father. Dad’s face was neutral and his tone cool.

“oh shit, someone call peeta, we got a major violation on our hand.” The Bird squawked, struggling against the man.

“John, answer me,” Dad said, “I place a lot of respect and responsibility on you, a young man like you has to know to do right, you need to learn to follow the rules. Real men know how to follow the rules right John?”

John turned to his dad’s neutral expression, and to the struggling orange Bird in his hand.

“shit john, papa egbert’s gone all looney, he’s worse than the stupid coyote who sets up all those expensive and weird-ass death traps that-”

“Shut Up!” Mr. Egbert shouted at the Bird, “I am talking to my son, who made the unfortunate mistake of letting you out. He’ll be joining his sister very soon if he doesn’t learn how to be a good boy, is that clear John.”

“d-dad, what’s gotten into you?” John asked, concerned at his father’s brutality.

Mr. Egbert began to squeeze the Bird, who struggled harder.

“ooh, loopy old man’s going to apply the pressure, gonna-“ the Bird began coughing, and his voice turned desperate as John’s Dad squeezed harder, “goddammit John, make him stop, jeezus, this hurts, John, please he’s trying to kill me, John I don’t wanna die.”

“dad, stop,” John shouted, “i’m sorry i let him out of his cage, just please don’t kill him, he’s my friend.”

Dad glanced down at his son, and gave him a disgusted look before tossing the Bird away. He hit the ground and bounced a bit, coughing.

“I’m so disappointed in you son,” Dad shook his head, “Can’t be helped, at least your not as bad as your sister.”

John picked up the fallen Bird in his hands, as it let out a few more coughs.

“John, make yourself useful and go to the mill, get some firewood, and some tobacco, I’m almost out.”

Mr. Egbert then threw himself back onto the Gazebo’s seat, and put the pipe back in his mouth.

John quickly rushed off carrying his Bird, exited through one of the breaks on the boardwalk, and ran down the hill.


	2. The World is Still Grey

As soon as the Gazebo was out of sight, he slowed his pace and checked on the Bird.

“are you alright?”

The Bird stretched his wings and took off, fluttering over his head.

“feel great, brand spanking new, and not just any kind of spanking, some serious S&M shit all up in here with stocks and stuff, knowing some chick’s gonna come in here in leather garters and-”

John tuned the Bird out, he was doing fine. A thought mysteriously came into his head, telling him to analyze the extended metaphor for latent issues with domination and pain attached to the Bird’s sexuality and lack of research into such topics. Then the thought was gone, how strange.

“-and then we’ll all be up and eatin the whipped crème, maybe one of us’ll wonder, why the hell we’re doin that, but at least the spankin’s stopped, so me and her’ll just dig in”

“great!” John said.

“tuned me out didn’t you bro?”

“yep :B”

“well, what now?”

“we gotta find my sister!”

“naw, we gotta get that wood and tobacco for your dad”

“why? he almost killed you!”

“yeah, but if we don’t get it, he’ll crush my little Birdy lungs, my little Birdy heart and my little Birdy sternum, and i little-Birdy-don’t-want-that-to-happen”

“you sure you're okay buddy?”

“hey, you heard the S&M metaphor, and I ain’t repeating it”

John shrugged and set off down the hill, with the Bird following him. The grass felt slippery and squishy under his feet, wet from the night’s rainfall.

John finished his descent of the hill and walked to the mill. The grass’s color was washed out, grey-green in the light from the cloud cover. The Mill increased in size as he got closer.

The building was immense, and, like every other thing, was grey.

“why’s everything so grey and depressing?”

“to make you depressed, c’mon man that’s obvious”

The windows were all cracked and dust covered, though none were broken. A large wheel turned in the river current, it’s red paint long faded and since peeling.

As John got closer, he could hear it creak. It groaned like a man who’s burden had broken him long ago, a man who continued on with that burden as there was nothing left for him.

He got to the door of the mill. The wood was weathered and the paint was long gone. He pressed against it, and it too, like the wheel, groaned as it slowly swung open.

Over the groan, John heard giggling, and stopped in his ministrations. His Bird friend landed on his shoulder and focused his large solid black eyes on the source. John saw two girls across the meadow using a swing. The one on the swing wore a skirt and a bright orange jumper, and the other wore a black shirt and a red skirt, and was pushing the orange jumper girl.

The orange jumper girl swung higher and higher, laughing, while the one pushing her had a more reserved chuckle.

Something about the scene made John want to smile, and laugh alongside them. Something about the orange jumper girl’s laughter threatened to infect him. For some reason it relieved him, some old depressingly dark half-memory at the back of his head was given closure, and dropped from his subconscious.

“hey, stop leering, we got psycho dads to appease” the Bird said.

John snapped back to his grim reality and went into the mill, losing two of the few spots of color he had experienced.

The mill was dusty. The cracked dirty window pains let in enough light to let him see his way through the ordeal. The rays illuminated countless motes hovering in the air, and John navigated through them. He could feel the lifeless dust tickling his nostrils. He grimaced, and sneezed, spraying the dust away from himself.

John continued in, floorboards creaking under his every step, dust flying into the air. 

He wiped his nose and looked around. There was disused machinery everywhere, rusty and coated in more dust. The gears connected to the wheel creaked and groaned, their purpose unknown to the two. A few bugs skittered about, disturbed by the open door and further light. Spiders waited patiently in their webs, prey fluttering about. John continued till he got to a stockpile. There were numerous cubbies lining the wall containing all sorts of provisions. His dad had turned the mill into a store house, full of stuff they’d need for the winter, or just about anytime they needed it.

John examined the shelves, there were canned tuna, canned soup, bottled water, gunpowder, gravy, chicken, and copious pink cans of tab.

John picked up one of the pink cans and examined it. Why did they have this? Surely his dad didn’t drink this sugary water. John placed the can back on the shelf. He then picked up the one labeled mayo. It was just a plain can, silver, cylindrical and with a label on it. 

John stared intently at it.

“yo, johnny boy, you gonna eat that?”

John shook his head, “no, no, just lost in thought.”

He placed the can back on the shelf, and walked along the wall, examining all the preserved food. There were set of jams, each pristine in their jars, protected from the settling dust. The James all had colorful images of smiling fruit on them, as did several bottles of

“applejuice, aw sweet” the Bird said, hopping onto that shelf, “yo John, open up one of these”

“i don’t think we should touch any of my dad’s provisions except the pipe tobacco.”

“aw c’mon man, just pour one whole bottle into my Bird bath and im set, i can drink it, swim in it, and eat all the bugs that wanna get down with the sticky stuff”

“that’s really gross.”

“stfu Egbert”

John ignored his Birdy friend and kept browsing the shelves. Finally, he found several brown paper rectangles. They were tobacco packed in and sealed with the kind of brown paper grocery bags were made of, a sticker listing the Tobacco’s information was listed on them. He grabbed two packages and stuffed them in his pockets and then headed back for the firewood.

“john, I know we gotta get papa crazybert’s pipe leaves and all, but what about your sister? we gotta help her, can’t just wait around for the tobacco to kill him, we’ll probably be here forever”

“i don’t know,” John said, sighing.

He grabbed up and armful of firewood and went to exit the storehouse, floorboards creaking all the way.

“i suppose we’ll just go exploring the basement when we give this stuff to my dad.”

John stepped through the door, balanced the wood on one arm and closed it after the Bird flew out. John steadied the wood and turned around. The two girls who were using the swing were gone, and it just hung there undisturbed.

John used his foot to close the mill door, and briefly saw another flash of text on it.

Wake up John.

He stared hard at the door, but the flash was gone, and he turned back to home, his Bird flying by him.


	3. The Color Palette Is Still, Unfortunately, Drab

“hey,” he asked the Bird, “do you ever get a feeling like, oh i don’t know, like something, or everything’s off? like nothings real?”

“like some wizord of oz stuff? sure, totally, you’ll wake up and be all like ooh it was all just a dream, and you were there and you were there, and everything’s sepia and white and boring, and we all learn a lesson about home and it being the shit and then you get a freaky ass sequel with wheely dudes and creepy claymation”

“i’m serious dude, what if this is all some kind of head dream?”

“as opposed to a foot dream?”

John sighed again, and looked up. The grey clouds still obscured the sky, curling and moving. White light filtered through and made him squint again. 

“be serious man, nothing feels right,”

The Bird landed on John’s shoulder.

“shit then, lets be serious, i dont like it, at all. we just do this depressing shit and there has to be more than gettin wood while your bitchy dad probs going to beat our skulls in. john, i hate that cage, i hate being put into that thing, the bars bang me up whenever I tried to spread my wings, and im trapped inside this tiny thing, and if your dad gets bored enough he can just shake me until im dead. john, irony aside, that scares me, and i dont wanna go out like that.”

John turned to his feathered friend whose large black eyes betrayed no emotion.

John went back to walking, and saw a bunch of grey birds flying overhead. They did a single loop and flew off, and John swore he saw “find the bunny” in the clouds.

He ascended the hill, his Bird still perched on his shoulder.

“so what do we do about my sister?”

“i say we wait for your dad to head off to work and then head down there and get her out. he’ll be at the butcher shop all day, he won't know”

“wait, my dad works at a butcher shop? i thought he baked cakes.”

“fuck did you get that idea from? your dad practically lives off bloody aprons and brandishing butcher knives, probably thinks it makes him powerful and scary and shit, it does, but still”

The house was insight, still looming, still grey and still gloomy. John stepped up onto the patio and pushed the door open with his shoulder, entering. The halls were still dimly lit with the filtered sunlight and he followed the hallway until the living room. The walls had no photos nor any friendly mementos nor reminders to lighten the place up. He got to the living room, and for a brief instant he imagined harlequins and an urn, but that thought was banished by the minimalistic decor. A television against a wall, a couch and an arm chair, a coffee table and a fireplace, which he dropped some wood into and the rest into a container. There was a picture on the wall, with him and his father, there was a third person in the picture, but they had been torn out and tossed into the fire a while ago. There were a few vases, but they were all empty, live flowers would just rot and look ugly.

John heard the sounds from the kitchen and went to investigate. He saw his father in a blood soaked apron bringing a cleaver down on some dead fish, loping their heads off and sweeping them to the side. He grunted at John’s arrival and continued to behead the sea creatures.

John watched in morbid fascination as his father swept the heads into a bag, and began deboning the bodies. Without looking up he said, 

“Son, I’m going to work soon, and I won’t be back until dinner. Sloppy Joes are in the freezer, you have enough sense to cook for yourself right?”

“okay,” John said, wary of the man.

His Dad stopped deboning and turned around, “Okay? I go out of my way to provide for you to give you food in the fridge and all you can say is okay? No thank you or anything?”

John took a step back, “s-sorry dad,”

“Don’t you walk away from me, be a man John, don’t be a coward like your stupid Bird.”

John was glad that his Bird knew to keep his mouth shut at this.

“John when I’m gone, I don’t want you talking, or even seeing your sister is that clear? She’s been very bad and I will not take it very well if you went down to help her, she’s not getting any breakfast, lunch, nor dinner, is that clear?”

John nodded.

“Good, now I’m off to go make some money to feed you and that ungrateful tramp,” Dad said, ruffling John’s hair in a mockery of fatherly pride, and getting blood in it, and wrapped up his meats.

John’s Dad left and loaded them up in his car, John watched the vehicle head out down the driveway from the house’s large windows. The car turned the lane, kicked up dirt from the road, and was gone, heading to his father’s butcher shop in the city.

John kept watching the scene, the grey road, and the breeze blowing through the dull grey-green trees. The dirt settled back down, and everything was serene again. Like a mosaic that had captured the true essence of eerie dullness.  
He stood, transfixed by the utter grey that was the world outside, being at Home was vastly more appealing, with its lonely halls, lack of lighting and… okay so it was boring as well.


	4. Grey Doors

John sighed, and wiped the blood out of his hair before throwing himself in a chair.

The Bird landed near the sink and began picking at stray pieces of meat.

“well, what do we do?”

“i say we break all your dad’s rules, smoke his pipes, drink some booze and then go rescue your sister,”

John thought about it.

“okay, but i’ve seen enough movies to know that as soon as we’re in a compromising position, the authority figure will come back in and bust us. it’s just the laws of life.”

“true that” the Bird said.

John suddenly had an idea, “okay, why don’t you keep watch for my dad and tell me if you see his car coming down the road, you can warn me and we can cover up what ever we’re doing. i’ll put on a movie so that’s what he thinks we’re doing.”

John went back into the living room while the Bird hopped over to a bag of bread and began picking at the plastic.

John opened up a case of DVD’s under the TV and began browsing through them. There were only a few films he recognized, Armageddon, Independence Day, and Face Off.

He opened that DVD, a classic tale of John Travolta desperately trying to win back his loving family from the sinister Nicholas Cage, who’s wearing his face. It had action, memorable lines and a family subplot that could bring John to tears. He opened the DVD case and one of his father’s notes fell out.

John, I watch these despicable movies because I love you. I hope you recognize that I waste my hard earned free time to endure these awful films with you. How I slave over cooking for you and you abuse whatever father-son relationship we’ve established to expose me to these pieces of utter trite.

As your father it is my burden to bear, just know how much this is costing me.

John sighed at the note, when did they get so backhanded?

He popped the DVD in, scrolled through the menu and pressed play, leaving it to run through the scenes.

He returned to the kitchen and opened the bread that the Bird was becoming so frustrated with. He took a slice and tore it to crumbs and put them in the cup of his hand, letting the Bird perch on his hand and pick at them.

“motherfuckin breadcrumbs, sweet”

John turned around and saw across Nicholas Cage’s singing face the words, 

the bunny doofus, get to finding it

Then they were gone.

“i’m noticing a lot of colorful words floating in the air.” John said, scrunching his brow in thought.

“congrats egbert that means you’ve boarded the train to crazy town, stops are here and charlie sheen’s house, breakfast is served by the coco pops bird in the dining car and scary lookin train dudes demand your ticket and you gotta go all the way back to your train car just to get it for him”

John walked out of the kitchen and living room, Bird still in hand, and headed down the Hallway. He passed by the wide gothic windows staring out at the grim landscape, and headed down another corridor.

There were doors on either side, John recognized his own on one side, his sister’s next to his and his Dad’s on the opposite wall. At the end of the hallway was a door, which John knew lead to the basement. 

John tried his Dad’s door, he grabbed the nob, but it barely moved, signaling that it was locked. The old man informed him numerous times to never go in there. 

He tried his door, it swung open when he turned the nob, as he knew it would. 

He walked to the end of the Hallway and tried that door. The nob jiggled and the metal inside rattled, it too was locked.

Finally John turned to Jade’s door, and he reached for it, the Bird looked up from his other hand to watch.

John froze, the hairs on the back of his neck rose in some kind of primordial reaction; fear. John stared at the door, it remained transfixed, and his fingers were just inches from the nob, yet he hesitated. There was a feeling, almost screaming at him in the back of his head that he shouldn’t open this door. John inched his fingers closer, the buzzing in the back of his head getting louder. Just as he was about to touch it, he saw something move in the keyhole. A bead of inky black goo formed in the key hole, and slid down the white door, staining it. A few more drops came out, dropping to the floor in a slow pitter patter. John looked up at the door which had more briefly appearing words on it.

Don’t open the door Dum8ass!!!!!!!!

John wisely chose to withdraw from the door. As he left, he noticed a wire extending from the frame and into an outlet. Knowing Jade it was probably some vague sciency way of making the door automatic, or possibly playing the Squiddles theme when opened, but that really annoyed Dad, so maybe not.

“that’s some other kind of trippy shit” The Bird said, looking at the small little puddle of ink at the base of the doorway. John’s withdrawal had halted the flow.

“okay, i’m going to try and find the key to the basement, go keep watch.” John said to the Bird.

The Bird nodded and flew off, the breadcrumbs in John’s hand consumed. John turned back to the door to Jade’s room, the puddle looked almost like a shiny black mirror on the ground, and the door made no more excretions. John avoided it and went into his room.


	5. The Room

His room was… unchanged, grey boring and other words associated with it.

John thought about the bunny and how it must be in a box. As such he went about searching for that box.

John looked under his bed, sweeping the sheets free, and found nothing, but the words.

Getting coooooooolder John!

John went up from the bed and turned to his bathroom, looking under the sink and in the toilet, in the toilet he found the words:

dude, weak.

He rolled his eyes and closed the toilet bowl. These mysterious words are getting sassy.

He went back into his room and observed his surroundings, with the bed and bathroom checked, he tried his closet. There were a few plain white shirts and equally plain pants stored in it. 

“what happened to the color green? or any other suitable wardrobe making color?” he asked outloud.

He moved back to his piano and sat on the bench, thinking.

He leaned his elbows on the keys, and a thunk was heard from inside the piano, that wasn’t present when he played earlier. John opened the top of the piano and looked in, finding a green box inside with the words:

Fiiiiiiiinally

took you long enough

Please hurry.

Naturally, the words faded away.

John grabbed the box and opened it, finding a torn brown bunny in it. He stared at it, puzzled. He waited for the colorful words to appear, but they didn’t. He dropped the box and turned the bunny over, examining it. There was a tear on the back and something metallic within it. John opened the tear and found a key inside, it was a dull metallic grey, but it was a clue.

John stood up, put the bunny back in the box and placed it on the bed. He exited his room back into the hallway, still looking at the key. Closing the door to his room, he spied another wire, leading form the frame into the socket that Jade’s was plugged into.

There were three doors he could try with the key, and, ruling out Jade’s foreboding door, actually just two. He looked at his Dad’s door, as dull and unremarkable as all the other doors in the house, but viable nonetheless. John also saw a wire leading from the frame into another socket, but paid it no heed.

He took a deep breath, and put the key into the lock.


	6. Monsters

The door opened, and John peered in. The first thing that hit him was the cold, a rush of freezing air greeted him upon opening. Then there was the smell, meat, dead frozen meat. Dad’s room resembled a meat locker. Skinned pig, horse, and chicken carcasses hung from the ceiling by hooks. The back of the door was metal, as were the walls of the room, which reached too far back to adequately represent the space of what Dad’s room would normally occupy.

John eyed the carcasses, some hallowed out, some intact. Ahead of him he saw a man, his dad, hunched over a large horse, meticulously slicing and pulling the skin off. He stabbed his knife into the cutting board and whirled around, spying John.

“What the hell are you doing here?” he barked.

John just stood there, stunned, his Dad left, got into his car and drove off to work, how was he-

“What did I tell you?” he asked.

“i-” John stammered.

“What the HELL did I tell you, boy?” Dad shouted.

“dad, i– how- what’s-” 

“John, I told you, I TOLD you, not to go into my fucking room. You didn’t listen, it was one of the few things I asked you to do, as your father, and you disobeyed me. Real men follow the rules John, so why. Didn’t. You.” Dad said, softly.

“dad, i’m sorry, but there were these words, and i had to find a bunny, and a key and- and-” John said, mind screaming danger.

Dad pulled the knife from the cutting board and wiped it on his bloody apron, worn over his business clothes. He sheathed his knife in a leather holder at his belt and strode over to his son.

“Jesus John, stop making an idiot of yourself.” Dad said, stopping in front of his son. “What’s so important that you had to bother me at work?”

John stared up at his Dad, who’s face now was graced with an expression of moderate annoyance. Dad was uncaring toward a lot of John’s things including his hobbies, his health, and even his reaction to moving out here away from his friends, but when Dad did have a reaction like this, John knew he’d done something wrong.

“dad, why does the door to your room lead to a meat locker?” John asked.

Dad smiled at him, and ran his bloody hand through John’s hair, tussling it again. “Champ, that’s a great question,” he said, before his fingers tightened and he was forcibly grabbing a large clump of John’s hair, “which you wouldn’t need to ask if you had only FOLLOWED MY RULES!”

Mr. Egbert jerked his arm, and John was pulled further into the locker, his roots screaming in pain.

“dad- dad stop, you’re hurting me!” John protested.

“Stop crying and man up you ignorant little brat, I’ve taken enough of your obnoxious teen whining from your sister and I,” he tugged his son’s hair, hard, “have had enough!”

“I’ll fix you, you little-”

“hey egbitch” came a shout.

Dad looked up to see the Bird swooping at him from the doorway.

“caw caw motherfucker” the Bird shouted, and dive-bombed the man’s face.

“Arghh” he shouted, letting his son go and staggering back, trying to grab at the Bird.

The Bird pecked and clawed at the man’s face, fresh bloody cuts torn into his skin.

John fell to the ground and looked up at the display, his dad grabbed a the knife from its sheath and swung it at the bird, who dodged away and fluttered out of his reach. Dad’s face was a mess of scratches, especially around his right eye, which was shut, likely blinded.

He snarled and held the knife threateningly at the bird, before turning his attention back to John.

“You did this! You let this beast free, you and your stupid shit of a sister. John come here!” he shouted, advancing on his son.

The Bird darted for Mr. Egbert again, “dammit john, run” he shouted.

Dad backhanded the Bird and sent him to the ground. The Bird bounced, rolled and took to the air again.

“john, im really sorry, but i lied to you,” the Bird said, facing away from the boy, and he dove toward Mr. Egbert again.

This time, Dad was ready, his arm darted out and he grabbed the Bird, holding him even as his claws dug into the palm of his hand. With the knife in his other hand he slashed off one of the Bird’s wings.

The Bird screamed, and Dad smiled.

“I’ve had enough of you.”

“john, find your sister, get the fuck out of here”

John sprang to his feet, as his dad plunged the blade into the Bird’s breast, killing him. Dad threw the carcass to the ground, unceremoniously.

“Stupid rats with wings, never can make their numbers drop now can we John?” Dad asked, turning on him, and brandishing his knife.

John turned heel and ran out of the meat locker back into the hallway, his Dad chasing him.

He came face to face with Jade’s door, the foreboding creeping into his mind. On the door were the words.

no

F8CK N8

Do it, make this shit happen.

John shoved the key into the lock just as his Dad caught up to him.

Dad’s grip tightened on his shoulder as John turned the key. The door flung open, knocking them both down. Behind it was a roiling mass of thick darkness, and a void that stretched in every direction from the door. The void contained some… thing. Thousands of eyes shone in the darkness, and immediately they all focused on the open doorway and the two figures it opened to. The creature was enormous, and it’s form kept shifting, like a figure made of snakes, or a mass of worms tossed together. The tentacles slithered outward, some ending in suction cups, eyes and even claws.

Dad looked into the blackness and the creature within. Was it a single creature?

“Goddamit John.”

The tentacles swarmed through the open doorway seizing Dad by the torso, neck and arm. With his free hand, he began hacking and stabbing at the appendages.

“Son, when I get out of this, there’ll be hell to pay!” he shouted at John as the creature dragged him to the doorway. 

John turned to the door to the basement, and sprinted for it. It was the only door without a wire leading from it, and he shoved the key into the lock, turned it and threw the door open. Behind it was a dimly lit stairwell that trailed down into blackness. Without a second thought John rushed down it, leaving his Dad to his fate.


	7. Death

John raced down the stairs, the light fading more and more as the door fell out of sight. The hard wood stairs began to feel softer under his shoes, and squishy. John reached a hand out to the walls to steady himself. He felt the walls, a moist flabby texture greeted his hand, not unlike the raw meat his dad would cut. John examined the walls closely, now that his eyes had adjusted to the dim tunnel, he saw that the walls were indeed pink and bloody.

John continued down the meat moss steps, going deeper and deeper. As he descended, the meat became more and more rotten. His nostrils filled with the scent of decay, as each footstep drew a splurt of puss from the stairs. 

As he got lower, the rotten meat would slip, and fall down, exposing the wooden steps and walls beneath it. John almost slipped twice when the meat on the stairs came loose. He arrived at the bottom of the stairs, walls and floor devoid of the rotten animal bits. The exit opened up into a cavernous room, which really shouldn’t be underneath a house, but when Jade’s room opened into the furthest ring, anything was possible.

[upstairs]

Mr. Egbert growled at his son’s departure and kept struggling against the creature. It had almost dragged him to the opening, and had pulled his left arm through. Thinking quickly, Mr. Egbert threw his knife at the wire leading from the frame. It severed the cord and the fenestrated door deactivated. The abrupt loss of the portal severed both the tentacles, and his arm. The opening changed to a blank grey wall, and Mr. Egbert fell to the floor, bleeding. He lay there, trying to catch his breath focusing his mind. His hate gave him clarity, those brats would pay. He got up, pulled off the severed tentacles, and turned toward the door. He ignored his gaping wound, grabbed his knife and descended the stairs after his son.

[downstairs]

John stepped into the cavern, the ceiling extended higher than he was sure he had descended. There was absolutely no way this was their basement. The ground was gravely and made of solid rock, a natural formation rather than a paved one. There was a large lake in the cavern that went further than the eye could see, and John indeed could not see the end. He did se a figure he recognized in… red pajamas.

“dave!” John called out running towards the other boy.

Dave turned to face him, mouth twitched into a subdued smile.

He brought his fist out, and John hit it open handed, close enough.

“what are you doing in my basement?” he asked.

“y’know me, creeping in others personal downstairs space, its all good,” Dave said.

“dave, you sound like my bird y’know?” John said, face turning down.

“yeah, john it’s a really long story, but the short version is this, you gotta wake up, and that means you gotta find the bunny” Dave said.

“but i already did, it was in my piano, and I got the key and everything.” John said, desperate.

“john, listen i gotta disappear soon, gonna wake up, you have to find it,”

“yeah, but where is it?” John asked as Dave slowly began to fade.

“yo, it’s cool, vriska worked out this weird text thing with the dreams, she and rose’ll help you out, sorry bro,” Dave said, fading more and more.

“it was great seeing you again.” John said as Dave was almost gone.

Dave smiled at this, pointed his finger and disappeared.

John followed where his finger was pointed and saw a boat moored at a makeshift dock at the lake’s edge. It idly bobbed in the water and John walked toward it.

The ship was a faded blue, mast erect, sails tied, steering wheel still. It was more of a sloop than anything. John stepped onto the dock, the stolen wood groaned under his weight as he walked across. The boat was empty, and when he stepped aboard he felt it shift under his weight.

“wait, is the bunny here?” he asked outloud.

John sighed, and set about searching the ship. There wasn’t much to look through, and after a few minutes he slumped against the opposite railing and gave up. He looked down into the water and saw a figure standing next to him, but when he looked around him, he saw nobody. He turned back to the water, not noticing another figure emerging from the stairwell he had come from.

The shape behind him was blurry and only in silhouette, John couldn’t make out any features. The figure condensed into a more visible form, and just as it came into focus he felt a tap on his back and turned around.

There was a grey-skinned girl, smiling a “I’ll probably kill something cute and innocent” smile, dressed in an elaborate blue pirate coat complete with large feathered cap. From the cap protruded two asymmetrical orange/red horns

“Soooooooo John, how have we 8een?” she asked, smile broadening.

“i’m sorry, but who are you?” John asked the girl.

Her smile evaporated, “You have to 8e kidding me, you recognized Dave and not me?”

“um sorry, dave’s my best bro along with rose and my sister, and i really need to find her. have you seen her?”

The girl pinched the bridge of her nose.

“Dammit John, I don’t have time for this, I’ve been manipul8ting the dreambubbles to put our thoughts in your field of vision, do you remember?”

“oh yeah, the funny colorful words, that was cool!” John said, smiling.

“John do you know who I am?”

“no, sorry.”

“John, how do you know Jade is your sister?”

“um because she always was? she was born first and then i was. i’m fairly sure that’s how it works.”

“8ut you don’t remem8er me? Or Karkat, or Terezi?"

“no, sorry.”

“You don’t even remember how you cloned your sister from your lusii?”

“i have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“John, we reeeeeeeeally don’t have time for this we have to-”

“JOHN” Came a shout, and both turned toward it.

They saw Mr. Egbert, running at them, one arm missing and a bloody apron tied makeshift around a stump. His eye was white with rage, and he brandished a knife with red, black, and orange blood on it.

He snarled pointed dagger like teeth at John and the girl and charged for them.

The girl pulled a large blue sword from her belt and went to meet the psychotic man.

His knife met her sword with tremendous force and pushed her back.

“John, when the hell did your lusus 8ecome so frikkin crazy?” she shouted as Dad forced her back with more swings.

The girl put more pressure on her sword and swiftly kicked Dad in the chest, sending him off the boat.

She spun around to John and said,

“John, you need to find the goddamn 8unny, n8w!!!!!!!”

She thrust her sword forward, and the ships sails unfurled. The ship surged forward from the dock as if propelled by a breeze that did not exist. 

Dad had produced a meat hook from his wallet, driven it into the side of the sloop and was holding on. He pulled himself onboard and the two whipped around to face him.

The hook disappeared and he drew his knife again.

He snarled his sharp-toothed snarl and lunged at the girl again. She met him sword to knife as the ship sailed down the lake.

John watched as his dad hacked and stabbed with his knife. The Girl dodged and parried, before landing a slash on the man’s upperarm, forcing him to drop the knife.

With him disarmed, she thrust her cutlass through his chest, the blade piercing out the back of his torso.

“Hah, your lusus was some 8oogieman John,” the Girl said, letting go of the man and letting him fall.

John just stared agape as his father’s body hit the deck, unmoving. After his Dad had killed his best friend and tried to kill his sister, John had no words for the body.

“Okay John, now focus,” she said, snapping him back to attention, “This is some weird corrupted dream 8u88le that one of the elder god’s accidently 8umped into, or ate, or some such shit. Your two human friends found you and-”

Before she could finish, Dad sprang to his feet, sword still embedded in him, and grabbed her by her throat. He snarled at her, hat burning in his one remaining eye and tightened his grip. The Girl landed a few well-placed kicks on his torso and embedded sword but Dad didn’t flinch.

He tossed her overboard and advanced on John. Dad gripped the sword with his remaining arm, tore it from his body, and held it aloft.

“John, I’ve had it up to here with you,” Dad said, cooly walking towards him, “Do you know what happens to bad little boys and girls who disobey their parents?”

John backed against the front of the ship as his Dad bore down on him.

“ANSWER ME!” He shouted.

“I-” John began to say.

Dad ignored him and thrust the sword through him. Everything went black.


	8. Life

John snapped awake, the room swirled before him before slowly coming into focus. John sat up, felt his stomach for the wound, but came up with nothing. He stood, and looked around, he was no longer in that girl’s boat, but in another’s house. He didn’t recognize it; the walls were plain, but not bare. There were little statues and pictures of wizards everywhere.

John looked around, and began walking. John rounded a corner, and spied a window. Through it he saw that it was storming outside, lightning flashed and rain relentlessly pounded on the glass. 

John kept walking, turning a corner and seeing more pictures. Wizard, wizard, Dumbeldore, Saurman, Gandolf, Merlin, John counted off the picture’s contents. One picture at the end stood out from the others. It was a mother and her daughter, whom John recognized as Rose. This must be her house.

Why the hell was he in Rose’s house?

John shook his head and walked on. He wondered where his Dad had gone and that Girl and Dave, why had he just disappeared? What was a dream bubble? What corruption?

John pondered on these questions. He missed his Bird, he probably couldn’t answer any of the questions beyond going into an extended metaphor over some subject John wasn’t to keen on discussing, but regardless the company and ability to share information with a confidant was missed. There was a feathered friend shaped hole in his heart and a pointless din of monotone rambling that his ears missed.

Then he thought of the creature’s last words to him, he said that he’d lied, but about what?

John rounded a corner and saw an open door with a faint light emitting from it. He went towards it and looked in.

Inside he saw Rose, hair disheveled, sitting at her desk with her head down in her arms, an unlabeled bottle next to her.

“rose?” John asked, as he approached her cautiously.

Rose bolted upright, and knocked the bottle off the table before turning to John.

“Ah, John, you’re here, excellent.” Rose said, smiling.

Her smile was tight and pursed, here eyes were red, puffy, and they had bags under them. Had she been crying?

“rose what’s wrong?” John asked.

“John, we were searching around for you, and found that the meteor passed through a dreambubble that an elder god accidently damaged. It’s at least partly stuck in here and is causing problems. Davesprite, Jade and yourself are all trapped in here, and the corruption is blending your memories and making them deadly.” Rose said, standing.

“You’re stuck in a state of powerlessness, being chased by a figure in your life who is not as you remember him. That’s actually an interesting dilemma, how did you come to associate your father with-”

“rose, I don’t understand, any of this!” John said, interrupting.

Rose sighed, and shifted her hand into her pocket, fishing for something. She then pulled out a couple of seeds.

John looked at them, there were four in total, each of a cyan color.

“are they jumping beans?”

“They’re seeds John.”

“jumping seeds?”

“No, these seeds will help you, just swallow them.”

John took them and did so, not needing an explanation from Rose.

“okay, now what?”

“You’ve split yourself up in the Dreambubble, these seeds are just mental commands to get you back on track. Similar to that so is the bunny, it’s a recognizable object in your mind, meant to act as a mental trigger; it will wake you up, hopefully without brain damage. John, I know you can survive this.” Rose said, smiling.

John stepped forward and hugged her, saying “thanks rose!”

Rose, surprised, said, “John all I’ve done is tell you stuff you would have figured out.”

“yeah, but that would’ve taken forever!” John said, letting her go.

“No it wouldn’t have,” Rose said, her mouth forming a small smile, but whatever followed was lost as she, and her house, faded into nothingness.

The world was black for a brief instant before it took shape again.

John opened his eyes, he was on a ship in the middle of a cavern. He knew that now, he knew who the girl was, he knew who his “dad” really was, and he knew who he was.

He stood up on the deck, sword having made no mark in his torso, he was taller now, stronger. John faced his “father,” he stood up straight, and fixed the monster with a glare.

He was older, he’d survived a war and his own death, twice, this… thing was no threat, this thing was only a corrupted memory.

“you are not my dad!” John said, still glaring.

His dad looked at his sword, stained only with his own blood and not his son’s. When it struck John, it seemed to pass through his body like air. The boy had fallen unconscious and unharmed as the corrupted bubble allowed him to manifest elsewhere, but he was alert now.

“Son, you’ve done it again,” he said, voice rising, “You’ve done it AGAIN, you’ve disobeyed me yet again, you couldn’t be an obedient little shit and just died like your sister, you couldn’t-”

“no!” John shouted, “you aren’t my dad, my dad was nice and happy. my dad read to me and taught me the piano and helped me with my homework. my dad taught me how to shave and bake, YOU aren’t him, you’re just some corrupt piece of this damaged place, some part of my mind that just won’t die. my dad’s been dead for almost two years and you, dancing around with your murdering abusive shit, are not him!”

John took a step toward his dad, and now the old man took a step back, his son was bigger, and had an anger burning in his bright blue eyes.

“you killed my friend, hurt my sister, and tried to kill me! i’m going to find her and the bunny and leave you to your miserable self!”

“How dare you talk back to me!” His dad shouted, lunging at him.

John threw a punch, and a vortex of wind flew from his hand, striking his dad and sending him flying, only to crash, hard, into the mass of the boat.

He crumpled to the floor, as the girl, Vriska, pulled her self from off the side.

She looked at him, his clothes turning the powerful blue shade of his god tier pajamas.

“hi vriska :)” John said.

“Good to have you 8ack! ::::)” Vriska said.

“yeah, it’s great to be back, how’s it going with the pirate plan?”

“It’s a work in progress, this is just a detour.”

“great! I mean, gr8!”

“::::)”

“now we gotta find a bunny, you remember that stuffed toy?”

“Yeah, the weapon thing, Rose said it was some kind of mind trigger thingy right?”

“yep!”

John and Vriska looked about the cavern, the domed roof was stalactite free, but at the epicenter there was… something.

Vriska nodded at john, and a pair of blue wings sprouted from her pir8 uniform, while John floated up in the air.

They hovered away from the boat and up towards the now reachable ceiling. There, floating was a green box just a few inches from the top of the cave. John reached out and grabbed the box, gently pulling it from its floating resting place, and feeling gravity take hold of it in his hands.

He opened the box to find the bunny in there, brown with purple sewing, Rose’s gift.

“alright, now we just gotta find my sister.” John said.

“Yeah that’s the thing Dave was trying to do, but he woke up before he could tell me anything.” Vriska said.

“i don’t think he was successful.” John said, picking up the bunny and handing the green cube to Vriska.

The bunny then began to glow a bright white light. John could feel the fabric, both old and new, unravel and fall away, leaving something intangible and warm in John’s hand. That warmth floated from his finger tips and expanded along the cavern’s roof.

hi john

A voice, unmistakably Jade’s, said in his head.

i can’t wait to see you again!

The voice said, if it was a face John thought it would beam at him. He smiled, as she continued.

you need to wake up, you can do it!

“John, stop smiling like an idiot , this glowing thing is your way out!” Vriska said, snapping him back into reality.

“you can’t hear her?” he asked.

“Who?” Vriska said.

“JOHN!”

The shout caused both to stop and stare down. Mr. Egbert had righted himself on their ship, Cutlass still in his remaining hand, face bloody, eye useless, and sharp teeth in a cruel snarl.

John and Vriska watched as John’s Dad bent double in pain, staggering about. He growled, as his back shifted. The two saw his shoulder blades bulge against his shirt and move around unnaturally, spacing themselves out. His white shirt began to redden with blood around the protrusions, as they ripped themselves free. Two massive dark wings sprouted from his Dad’s back, black feathers streaked with red blood.

Dad stopped his stagger, and looked up to them, pained snarl morphing into a cruel grin.

The bloody black wings began to beat mightily as Dad ascended. He departed the boat and gained height.

“Crap,” Vriska said, as the distance between the two of them and the bloody monster that was John’s guardian decreased.

John gestured and sent a gust of wind into his former caregiver. The breeze struck Dad but he fought against it, wings splattering blood every which way as they battled the air. The entire cave had erupted in the roar of Wind. The lake grew choppy and violent, tossing the ship to the rocks and dashing it, making the dock come apart with a few waves.

As his advance slowed, Vriska threw the box at Dad. It caught the draft and struck Dad in the head, before falling away to no effect.

“Dammit!” she shouted.

“you thought that would work?” he asked

“Can it John!” she snapped.

“:/”

John redoubled his efforts, hitting His Dad with powerful blasts of air from multiple directions, trying to throw him off balance. Through sheer effort, his Dad kept on his course, struggling against the element. All three did not notice the box until it started to glow. It flashed a brilliant bright green and made the three see spots for a moment. When the pesky dark dots disappeared, there Stood Jade, clad in her black witch robes and sporting her white dog ears. Dad, John and Vriska looked at the girl, hovering a foot off the water at the bottom of the cave. John’s wind had died down, and the water had calmed, ripples flowing throughout and distorting all the occupant’s reflections.

Jade hovered there, smiling a big goofy smile, as the three just gaped at her.

“hi guys!” she said.

Dad took the opportunity to tuck his wings and dive at her. He raised the sword over his head as he came nearer, teeth bared at the girl, all thoughts turned to the hatred of his disobedient daughter.

Right before he got to her, she snapped her fingers, and Dad shimmered.

John and Vriska stared as the form blinked out of existence for half a second before freezing. Dad let out a scream as his body… dissolved. A stream of black evaporated from his wings and white from his clothes. There was no blood, bones nor viscera. It was like his colors had been pulled apart and there was nothing underneath.

And just like that, Dad was gone, his final scream echoing in the cave in a reverberating sound that grew quieter every repeat.

Jade floated up to the other two, and hugged John.

“i’m so glad you made it!” she exclaimed, holding him tight.

“What did you do?” Vriska asked.

“john’s dad and jack were just a combination of my brother’s memories and trauma blending together and gaining life from a dark god colliding with a dream bubble. how he was held together was like a bunch of paper held with old chewing gum, all i had to do was use my space powers to separate the memory from the bad stuff. the creature had nothing to sustain it, so it just fell apart.” Jade said, releasing John.

“are you okay?” John asked.

“i’m great!” Jade said, beaming.

“Why were you a box?” Vriska asked.

Jade attempted an expression resembling a :? which failed due to her not being a Pyrope.

“rose said something about the corrupt reality of the dream bubble altering one’s dreamself. i got turned into the box i tried to give John, though i did find the mental trigger thingie.”

Jade pointed to the glowing light that the Bunny had morphed into.

“that’s the way out?” John asked.

“yep! :)” Jade said.

“what about you?” he asked, turning to Vriska.

She let out a snort, an act that was supposed to make her sound superior, but actually made her sound sick.

“I come and go as I please. ‘sides, I’ve got a Pirate Army I have to lead to victory. It’s gonna be gr8, you should drop in sometime::::)”

All three had their attention drawn to a roar that echoed throughout the chamber. It sounded like someone’s soul dying, it was the voice of a beast whose very nature was beyond human or troll comprehension, and it sounded similar to Rose when John had first met her.

“I’m guessing we’re not gonna sit around for the final 8oss then.” Vriska said.

John and Jade flew to the light that the Bunny had become, and disappeared, Vriska following and vanishing behind them.


	9. This World Is Colorful

John woke up quickly to the bright yellow of the Battleship. He blinked a few times, the final traces of the old grey world ebbing from his vision.

The blue face of his Grandma floated over him, soup in hand. John looked around him. He was laying on a sofa in one of the rec-rooms, draped in a blanket, alchemized thermometer on the coffee table next to him.

“You’re awake! Good!” Nanna said, putting her soup down and checking his temperature.

John saw Jade rising from the couch on the far edge of the room, being attended to by Davesprite.

“How are you feeling John? Nothing too nasty in that Dreambubble?” Nanna asked, spooning soup in his mouth when he tried to answer.

Jade got to her feet and started stretching.

“yep! it all turned out well, didn’t it?”

“speak for yourselves, i got bird-filleted. thanks a lot john.”

John got out off the couch and stretched. A shale imp was scampering in with a tray of crackers, a Derseite was arranging a painting on the golden wall to his left. There was so much yellow here, the chairs, tables the walls, the hallway. All the royal gold of the Prospitian Navy, or Air Force, whatever. 

“dave sprite, you said you lied to me about something?” John asked the orange bird boy.

“  yeah, psycho-dad didn’t jack your sister, i lied to get you to do something about it, and i lied about the situation we were in, with the way that thing messed with your mind, you might not have believed me” he said.

“It was quite a strange little conundrum.” Nannasprite said, “You and Jade were napping when we cam across the murky looking Dreambubble with that creature sticking out of it, and you got stuck. I had Davesprite go to sleep to follow you, while Jaspers and I tended to you here.”

Jaspersprite had returned with a large get well soon cake, and after depositing it on another yellow table, proceeded to hug Jade.

Nannasprite pointed at one of the portholes and said “We’ve past it now, you two can look.”

John, Jade, and the sprites went to the windows and saw it. There was a Horrorterror lodged in a dream bubble that the ship was rapidly moving away from. The creature was a massive pile of eyes, tentacles, and pure insanity. So to John it looked like most of the others.

The Dream bubble was murky and had dark cracks spread throughout it, all coming from the writhing monster. Chunks of the bubble were breaking off, shrinking into nothingness in the depths of space. The creature was a struggling to free itself. More and more of the Dreambubble was falling off, until finally, it tore itself free. The bubble collapsed and broke apart. The pieces soon shrunk to nothing while the eldritch horror rejoined the others of its kind, lurking in the outer reaches, fearing the hunter.

The Nightmare was over, the bleakness, the DadJack creature, the uncertainty, all vanished as John watched the Dreambubble’s destruction.

That was that. There was nothing attacking him, no abusive guardians, and no great tentacle monster with intent to tear his mind apart like tissue paper. The danger had passed, for now. 

There was still the new session, there were still the trolls to meet, and Rose and Dave were still gone. Hell, he might even be able to find his Dad again when they land. Listen to his bad “Dad Jokes” smell the sickening, yet comfortably familiar, aroma of cake and tobacco, maybe see him joke around with Nanna for the whole Egbert family experience.

Jade, Dave sprite, and Rose’s cat were all here, and while the future wasn’t anymore clear, it was hopeful. He would see Vriska again, catch up, see what she’s gonna do with her Pir8s, see how many new ghost trolls he could meet, and hopefully avoid another painful trident related death.

The ship was pretty. The yellows shone through, giving light to match the kingdom the ship came from. The enemies, allies, and little creatures from the game all scurried about on the craft, all fighting done, waiting for a new purpose.

Nanna and Jaspers both left to clean up the place, Davesprite leaving with Jade, muttering an “I missed you” in his own convoluted way.

The world was bright, be it in the beautiful color scheme of the battleship or the optimism one feels for the future. He wasn’t trapped in a house set to depressing greys anymore.

“c’mon John!” Jade called to him from the door, “davesprite and I are going to go round up a bunch of chess guys to play another computer game, it’ll be fun!”

John smiled at her, nodded, and followed her out into the hall.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well that's it folks. I liked putting the John into the Coma setting, even though Coma was better as a visual and audio medium. Thanks to everyone for reading.


End file.
